remarkable feats in the way of plant breeding; but it is 

 that his methods are almost purely intuitive and would die 

 with him, were his own records all that there was to be left 

 behind, a striking difference from the mass of data accu- 

 mulated by Nilsson. It is the rule of thumb method, 

 picturesque but uncertain, as against the surer but less 

 romantic practices of science. 



The matter of general scientific agriculture opens an 

 immense field in which I can call your attention to a few 

 points only. The scientific care of our forests, for trees 

 may be regarded as a crop and their culture agriculture, 

 is a question to which we in this country are awakening 

 none too soon. Forestry as practised in Europe, demand- 

 ing as it does expert botanical knowledge, perhaps not by 

 the foresters themselves but by those who direct their 

 labors, has saved what were the fast diminishing wooded 

 areas. There is need of haste with us for similar scientific 

 treatment of the problem by men who are not simply 

 woodsmen, but botanists as well. 



Thr scientific rotation of crops, the use of fertilizers 

 and the study of the physical and chemical condition of 

 the soil in connection with the living plants, involve ques- 

 tions which may mean the success or failure of much of 

 our farming. These questions can only be settled by care- 

 ful investigations which take into consideration the nature 

 of the plants themselves as well as the physical conditions 

 of their environment. Some may say that knowledge 

 along this line has been satisfactorily handed down from 

 father to son, that the farmer knows his business better 

 than does the scientist, but it is a patent fact that this is 

 not so. For instance, many a farm which has been dam- 

 aged for a long period of years by the over-liming of the 

 soil might have been spared had the farmer of fifty years 

 ago had the knowledge, which we now have, of the relation 

 of lime to the other mineral substances needed by the 



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